tonight, 13 coal miners trapped nearly two miles inside a west virginia mine. >> reporter: a few years before bobby's car barrelled off that road, 13 miners huddled together in the mine, as the deadly air space was around them. dr. julian bales was the surgeon. >> he had had a massive heart attack from the poisoning, in liver and kidney failure, with a collapsed lung. >> reporter: his body somehow recovered. the question was, would his brain do the same? >> can you quantify that somebody like he would recover, that he would have a meaningful recovery? >> we felt, and the evidence supports it was truly a long shot. >> reporter: but bales was putting together a plan to save his brain. high doses of omega 3 fatty acids, fish oil. >> so the concept was then to try to rebuild his brain from what he was when he was an embryo in his mother's womb. but we gave him a very high dose, to make sure it was sat rate ed, with very high doses. >> had that been done before? >> no. >> reporter: in higher studies, omega 3 seemed to help the brain, could an injured brain be similarly restored? and if so h